1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a simulation equipment and the like suitable for use in a data processing equipment executing a software that is operational in the other type of data processing equipment.
In recent years, the processing speed of the data processing equipment has been improved remarkably in a short time as the technology advances. It has frequently been seen that a data processing equipment admitted as the highest processing speed at a certain point in time has been surpassed in terms of the processing speed in a while by the other type of data processing equipment newly developed.
To the data processing equipment used by a large number of users can be allocated a sufficient cost for developing a hardware, so that high performance equipment will be developed one after another. On the other hand, to the data processing equipment used by a small number of users cannot necessarily be allocated such an ample cost, so that the hardware development for a high performance equipment will be difficult.
However, while the data processing equipment used by a small number of users remains unimproved in the performance, if a software that is operational in the data processing equipment can be made to operate in the data processing equipment used by a large number of users that has newly been developed, the users using the data processing equipment will always be able to obtain the necessary processing capacity.
The data processing equipment executes specific circuit operations by built-in softwares, however, generally the data processing equipments each contain different instruction data (instruction word or instruction word train) to execute the circuit operations; and therefore, the software composed of combinations of instruction data is not operational as it stands in the other type of the data processing equipments.
In other words, a program (machine language) that is operational in one data processing equipment cannot be used as it is in the other data processing equipments that have different architectures.
Especially when only a software in which instruction data are combined to directly operate the circuits which is called a load module, is present and a software described by a high-level language called as a source program is not present, it is very difficult to transplant the software into the other type of the data processing equipment.
In order to solve the foregoing problem, a simulation equipment as a data processing equipment is considered necessary which converts a conversion source software composed of instruction data to operate a certain type of data processing equipment into a converted software composed of instruction data to operate a different type of data processing equipment, and executes the converted software having been converted so as to perform the processing equivalent to the conversion source software.
2. Description of the Related Art
The related art will be described as to (a) construction of a conventional simulation equipment and (b) processing flow of a conventional simulation equipment, in this order.
In the description hereunder, the same parts or the corresponding parts will be given the same reference symbols.
(a) construction of a conventional simulation equipment
FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing a construction of a conventional simulation equipment.
A simulation equipment 100 shown in FIG. 16 is comprised of an input circuit 2, main memory circuit 3, and processor circuit 4. The simulation equipment 100 converts a processing instructed by a conversion source software inputted through the input circuit 2 into an instruction of a converted software that the self-equipment can execute and executes the processing.
Here, the input circuit 2 is connected to the main memory circuit 3, and inputs the conversion source software into the main memory circuit 3.
And, the main memory circuit 3 holds a conversion source software inputted through the input circuit 2, a software to convert this conversion source software into a converted software and to execute the converted software, and a software to execute an interrupt processing when an interruption occurs on the process of executing the software. The main memory circuit 3 is connected to the input circuit 2 and the processor circuit 4.
Concretely, the main memory circuit 3 is provided with an input processing program area 31, conversion source software area 32, conversion execution processing program area 34', and interruption processing program area 33.
Here, the input processing program area 31 is an area to hold a software (program) for transferring the conversion source software inputted through the input circuit 2 to the conversion source software area 32.
And, the conversion source software area 32 is an area to hold the conversion source software inputted through the input circuit 2.
Further, the conversion execution processing program area 34' is an area to hold a software that decodes conversion source instruction data in the conversion source software held in the conversion source software area 32 into converted instruction data word by word and operates the processor circuit 4 in accordance with the instruction of the converted instruction data.
And, the interruption processing program area 33 is an area to hold a software that, when an unplanned event occurs on a processing, interrupts the planned operation to process the event and thereafter makes the planned processing to be executed.
And, the softwares held in the input processing program area 31, conversion execution processing program area 34', and interruption processing program area 33 each are executed by the processor circuit 4, so that these areas are made to function as an input processing division, conversion execution processing division, and interruption processing division, respectively (reference symbols 131, 134, and 133, respectively, in FIG. 17).
Further, FIG. 17 shows a construction of a functional block in the conventional simulation equipment. In FIG. 17, a reference symbol 140 shows a simulation executing division that converts a processing instructed by the conversion source software inputted through the input circuit 2 into a processing instructed by a converted software to execute.
And, the processor circuit 4 is comprised of an instruction counter 5 and a general purpose register 6. The processor circuit 4 reads out the softwares (namely, the softwares held in the input processing program area 31, conversion execution processing program area 34', and interruption processing program area 33) and operates the simulation equipment 100 in accordance with the instructions of the softwares; and it is connected to the main memory circuit 3.
The instruction counter 5 is a circuit that holds an address in which the instruction data read out subsequently to the main memory circuit 3 is stored, in which the data length of the instruction data is added to update the data each time when the instruction data is read out from the main memory circuit 3.
The general purpose register 6 is a circuit to hold data necessary for various processings and control data, and to temporarily hold data designated by the software that become necessary in the course of the processings.
And, the general purpose register 6 is provided with a read-out address area 62 and a control data area 64.
The read-out address area 62 is an area to hold an address in which the instruction data read out subsequently to the conversion source software area 32 is stored, and to add the data length of the conversion source instruction data to update the data, each time when the conversion source instruction data is read out from the conversion source software area 32.
And, the control data area 64 is an area to hold a state code (condition code) generated from that a processing instructed by the conversion source instruction data is executed, and a beta length of the conversion source instruction data read out.
(b) processing flow of a conventional simulation equipment
The processing flow of the conventional simulation equipment 100 shown in FIG. 16 and FIG. 17 will be described with reference to FIG. 18.
In the simulation equipment 100, when a conversion source software is inputted into the main memory circuit 3 through the input circuit 2, first, the conversion source software is stored in the conversion source software area 32 in the main memory circuit 3 by the input processing division 131 (step B01).
And, the leading address of a conversion source instruction data stored in the conversion source software area 32 is set in the read-out address area 62 of the general purpose register 6 of the processor circuit 4 (step B02).
Next, the conversion source instruction data is read out from an area in the conversion source software area 32, instructed by a read-out address held in the read-out address area 62 (step B03), and the read out conversion source instruction data is decoded word by word by the conversion execution processing division 134 (step B04).
Step B05 judges whether or not the conversion source instruction data is an end instruction, and if it is the end instruction, the processing is ended ("end" from YES route of step B05); end if not, the processing is continued (step B06 from NO route of step B05).
If the decoded conversion source instruction data is not an end instruction, the data length of the conversion source instruction data is set in the control data area 64 of the general purpose register 6 of the processor circuit 4 by the conversion execution processing division 134, and the instruction data length is added on the read-out address to be stored in the read-out address area 62 (step B06).
Thereafter, the processings instructed by the conversion source instruction data is executed word by word by the conversion execution processing division 134 (step B07).
Further, the conversion execution processing division 134 checks the presence of an external interruption (if an external interruption is detected or not) (step B08), if the external interruption is not detected, the step returns to step B03. And, if the external interruption is detected, the interruption processing division 133 executes ain interruption processing with regard to the external interruption (step B09), and then the step returns to step B03.
And, until the end instruction is decoded, the operations of the foregoing step B03 through step B09 are sequentially repeated.
However, in the conventional simulation equipment 100, a conversion source instruction data is decoded word by word into a converted instruction data, the processing (simulation operation) instructed by the converted instruction data is executed for one word of the conversion source instruction data (in some cases, instruction data for plural words); and therefore, when the instruction data conversion operations as such are frequently repeated (namely, when the number of the conversion source instruction data in the conversion source software is very large), there exists a problem to require an enormous processing time for simulation operations.